(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a garnish for a vehicle. In one aspect, the invention relates to a luminous garnish that provides both a high quality and a high product value of a vehicular interior material by displaying various patterns and illuminations.
(b) Background Art
In recent years, there has been an increase in the development and sale of vehicles having an improved driving system (e.g., an improved engine), and enhanced convenience features (e.g., mounting various convenience devices).
High quality interior designs of vehicles are also being actively pursued and one method for increasing the quality of an interior of a vehicle is a garnish.
A garnish is one or more decorative parts attached to an instrument panel, a crash pad, a door console, and various trims, and generally has a wood grain film paper or a painted surface to provide patterns to an exterior of a surface.
Such garnishes help to decorate the interior of a vehicle to provide a novel and high quality interior. Additionally, luminous garnishes are being developed wherein illumination technologies are applied according to the specifications needed to achieve a certain high quality.
Although garnishes to which illumination technologies are applied are currently used only for some luxury cars or are available as options, the in-use demand of such garnishes is expected to expand regardless of the models of vehicles.
The illumination effect of a garnish is realized by light emitting from a light emitting body which creates a luxurious atmosphere in the interior of a vehicle.
A conventional garnish is produced by attaching a separate light emitting thin garnish structure for realizing an illumination effect, or by coupling a light emitting body, which is a separate part, to the garish, i.e. via a process of separately manufacturing a part (illumination part) in which a light emitting body is embedded and an actual garnish part (garnish body) and integrating them.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating an example of a conventional light emitting garnish which is disclosed in Korean Laid-Open Patent No. 2010-44443.
As shown in the figure, after an illumination unit 30 including a lamp 31, a lens 33, a half mirror layer 34, and a light transmitting layer 34a, and a garnish body (decoration part) 20 are manufactured separately, they are mounted to a part such as an instrument panel such that they are integrated with each other.
According to the above-described configuration, separate materials have to be used to manufacture the illumination unit, wherein the garnish body and different surface treatment methods have to be applied respectively.
However, due to the garnish body and the illumination unit being separate, a disadvantageous structure exists in producing an illumination effect wherein the whole structure may be changed.
Moreover, since the illumination unit and the garnish body are manufactured separately and are assembled at different locations, a specific pattern of the exterior of the garnish body cannot be realized at the same location of the illumination unit, making it difficult for the two pieces to provide a luxurious image.